I had heard that "The Sign of the Cross" was one of the most outrageous, perverse, over-the-top films to come out of Hollywood in the "Pre-Code" years, so I expected it to be more entertaining than it turned out. While "The Sign of the Cross" certainly has its moments, they are surrounded by lots of slow-moving, quasi-religious stuff about Christian martyrs in Ancient Rome. I say "quasi-religious" because it's hard to believe in Cecil B. DeMille's commitment to Christianity when he is bombarding you with images of kinky sex and violence. Instead, the movie makes DeMille seem like one of the great hypocrites of all time, pasting a religious message on top of an amoral film to make it palatable.
After a promising beginning that has Emperor Nero (Charles Laughton) cackling and strumming a lyre as Rome burns, and soon after that Empress Poppaea (Claudette Colbert) taking a milk bath, the royals' wicked antics take a backseat to the main story of persecuted Christians. The emperor's deputy Marcus (Fredric March) falls in love with a Christian named Mercia (Elissa Landi), and struggles to save her while obeying the royal command to kill all her people.
March isn't the best person to carry the movie, though he is hampered by a weak script that makes his feelings for Mercia more like lust than like actual concern for her, and thus unsympathetic. His big change of heart at the end is melodramatic and unconvincing. Landi's piety can tip over the line into starchiness, though I enjoyed her smirking reactions to the courtesan who tries to entice her with the "Dance of the Naked Moon." Actually that whole scene is entertaining, but mostly Landi and her fellow Christians speak ponderously of Jesus, gaze at crosses, and sing a hymn with unintelligible lyrics.
Thus, it's always nice when the film returns to Nero and/or Poppaea, but it does this far too infrequently, especially considering how entertaining Laughton and Colbert are. Laughton savors his lines and lolls around like a big debauched baby, but he only appears in four scenes. Colbert is very charismatic and seductive, and her voice has an appealing directness to it. She plays Poppaea as a woman who knows exactly what she wants and will stop at nothing to get it.
"The Sign of the Cross" really got its infamous reputation from the last half-hour or so, where the Christians get thrown to the lions as just one event in an elaborate Coliseum spectacle that includes gladiators, bear-baiting, dwarfs battling Amazons, and plenty of semi-naked women menaced by various animals. Indeed, this sequence is eye-popping and mindboggling. It's just a pity that you have to watch so much boring stuff before you get to it.
If you are looking to get a taste of 1930s DeMille, I would recommend his "Cleopatra" over "The Sign of the Cross." While it contains nothing quite as audacious as the Coliseum scenes, it's still pretty spectacular, plus it's shorter, moves at a faster pace, and makes better use of Claudette Colbert.
